Does Smoking Really Harm Your Earnings so Much? Biases in Current Estimates of the Smoking Wage Penalty

Silke Anger and Michael Kvasnicka

EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, 2010, vol. 17, issue 6, 564 pages

Abstract: Empirical studies on the earnings effects of tobacco use have found significant wage penalties attached to smoking. This article produces evidence that suggests that these estimates are significantly upward biased. The bias arises from a general failure in the literature to control for past smoking behaviour of individuals. Two-Stage Least Squares (2SLS) regressions show that the smoking wage penalty is reduced by as much as a third, if past smoking of individuals is controlled for.

Keywords: Smoking; Wages; Earnings; Regressions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C51 I19 J31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

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Journal Article: Does smoking really harm your earnings so much? Biases in current estimates of the smoking wage penalty (2010)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:espost:68595

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